Yes (if you could push it) it would move independent of the tiled parts. The old wall (tiled shower surround only) was cut out and replaced with new. I've been asking around and someone suggested I get a drywall person to 'smooth out' the wall above the tile to the ceiling and that person should be able to fill and smooth out the vertical side wall. At least the wall could then be repainted and appear smooth again. However, I now have another problem. The new plumbing pipe that was installed inside the wall for the hot cold handles...doesn't stick out far enough to actually put the new handles on. I can't believe it! I am meeting a plumber there tomorrow to find out if he can make some type of ajustments to what is already there so I can use the handles that I bought. I wonder how much this will cost. I already fired the first guy I had who made all these problems. and Paid a second guy to do the tile job. He wanted $450. I hope that wasn't too much, I just don't know and HAVE to get this thing done. It's the only bath.

I'd use joint compound, applied with a joint knife. I always hated sanding with sandpaper because it's so messy and I hate the way it sounds. Rather than sanding with sandpaper, I use either a piece of fiberglass(?) window screen and/or a damp sponge for smoothing it out after it's dry. Both tricks my Dad taught me. :)

Here is what I suggest: (1) take some space from the kids bath for master shower - you will get a huge shower of 4' wide and over 7'6" long; (2) kids bath will be 8' long which is not spacious but totally works; (3) I don't know where you can add windows. For the master bath, ideally you can add a window at the top wall (the exterior wall); if it is not possible, add a window inside the shower; (4) if you can, I suggest you add a window in the kids bath as well. It makes a huge difference; (5) add some floating shelves next to the toilets in both baths for additional storage. Hope this helps.

I can't give you answers to all of your questions, but I can answer a couple. 1. That vertical crack looks like a crack in the foundation caused by settling. It happens in a lot of older homes and I don't think it is super serious, but it could settle more over time, so you might have to re-do a repair at some future point due to additional movement. 2. That looks like normal cracking in old plaster...not an indication of anything worse. 3. The black stain is not mold. It is stain damage caused by water sitting on top of the oak parquet, either from watering plants sloppily and not cleaning up, or from a leak coming through the wall from outside. There are various ways to try to clean this up (just Google), but in my experience it's not possible to make them disappear completely as it's not just on the surface, but has penetrated down into the wood a bit. I once had to deal with this and finally used a power sander to physically remove the stains, and then refinished the surface to match the surrounding area as much as possible. I probably had to remove 1/16" of oak to get to undamaged wood. 4. How did you get debris behind a baseboard in the first place? In any case, the easiest thing would be to pry it off, clean behind it, and reinstall....and maybe cauld the top edge with latex, paintable caulk. 5. If I were repairing that wall, which looks like concrete with patches of spackle or a plaster skim coat. I would sand only enough to remove anything that is loose, and then use a 12" wide joint knife to flatten the surface with joint compound.